- An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of one or more archipelago. The designation is legally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (UNCLOS III). The Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines are the five original sovereign states that obtained approval in the UNCLOS signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 10 December 1982 and qualified as the archipelagic states.